William Johnston Building is home of the Academic Center for Excellence (ACE) tutoring service. / Ondrej Pazdirek/FSView

Written by

Rebecca Cardenas

Contributing Writer

After conquering procrastination, the villain of productivity, and finally opening a textbook, the material can seem daunting after texting or rapidly copying notes in lecture.

To better aid its students and facilitate learning, Florida State University has excellent academic support resources on its campus for those struggling with a class, or who may need someone to study with.

The Academic Center for Excellence (ACE) is a tutoring service on campus, located on the ground floor of the William Johnston Building. Its main objective is to help students improve study habits and to encourage students to succeed in their academics while at FSU.

According to Peter Hanowell, director of tutoring services for ACE, all tutors are undergraduate students who have previously taken and succeeded in the course they are tutoring. A variety of courses are offered, including all those in high demand among FSU students.

The tutoring program receives a wide range of students, from those severely struggling in a class to those simply looking to study with someone who has taken the course before. The average student that receives tutoring from ACE will see a two-thirds grade improvement according to Hanowell.

Hanowell stressed that ACE is not just for students who are struggling in a course. It is a place to hone studying skills and a good resource for studying with a peer who has already taken the course. He said a student should never hesitate to ask for help in any capacity.

He is hopeful that more students will utilize ACE Learning Studio in the coming semesters. It is a good opportunity for students to study with peers with expertise in the subject at hand.

“We want as many students to come in as possible,” Hanowell said. “If they’ve been admitted to FSU we know they can be successful and we just want to help them in the web of the subject matter.”

Christian Levings, a sophomore from Tallahassee, Fla., found the ACE Learning Studio helpful during his freshman year. He said it was a useful way to manage his studying time.

“The ACE Learning Studio provides tutors in a quick and professional manner,” Levings said. “It takes the stress out of setting up times with friends or other people in your class.”

The ACE Learning Studio’s summer hours of service specifically for summer session C, between June 24 and Aug. 2 are Monday through Thursday 10 a.m.-8 p.m., Friday 10 a.m.-3 p.m. and Sunday, 3 p.m. – 8 p.m. Students may walk-in or make an appointment online or by phone call.

The Reading-Writing Center (RWC) was started in the 1960s and is one of the oldest of its kind in the country. It provides a tutorial for students on reading and writing.

Students can come in with a prompt, a rough draft, or a final draft to be read by tutors.Jennifer Wells, director of the Reading-Writing Center , said that the most common misconception of the center is that it is for students who are bad writers.

Most students that come to FSU with enough AP credit to bypass freshman English classes do not see the use in going for help with reading and writing. According to Wells, this is the wrong idea.

The Reading-Writing Center is not meant to be a proofreading resource, but a place for feedback from well-trained tutors.

Wells said the center serves mainly as a “practice audience” and an “idea laboratory.” Students can come in with a finished paper to test what response it elicits from the tutors, who act as the practice audience. A student can also bring in a prompt they don’t fully understand, in which case the tutor will help the student to find a good starting point.

Most students come to FSU with adequate writing skills, but are unclear about what college-level prompts are asking for, Wells said. This is one of the principal areas in which the Reading-Writing Center helps its students.

“The Reading-Writing Center serves as a bridge between the good writing skills students develop in high school and the writing expectations in college,” Wells said. “Our goal is to help demystify those expectations.”

Linzee Ott, a senior from Jacksonville, Fla., visited the center during her junior year. She said she felt moderately confident in herself as a writer, but the center gave her the extra push she needed to take her paper to the next level.

“They helped me see my paper from a point of view, and gave me constructive criticism that enhanced my writing a lot,” Ott said. “Without their help, I would not have gotten an A on that essay.”

College’s heavy reading load can also be overwhelming. The center helps students to develop the reading strategies that best suit them in order to keep up with their classes.

The Reading-Writing Center currently has nine different locations on campus, including locations at Strozier and Williams Building, home of the English Department. For each individual center’s hours, location information and online scheduling, students can visit fsu.myrwconline.com.

Other forms of academic support on campus include tutoring offered by the university libraries, research consultations at Strozier Library, and more. Further information about these resources can be found at ace.fsu.edu.